Bangladesh: Climate-induced challenge to nation's food security

A strong indicator of climate change, an erratic weather pattern has, of late, been leaving its harmful impact on the country's agriculture. Heat waves that swept through 36 districts in April this year damaged standing crops, especially, rice, worth Tk 3.0 billion over 70,000 hectares of land. Though the temperature in April usually reaches a maximum of 33 degrees Celsius, this time it was 35 degrees for two days in a row. The extreme heat, also called, heat-stress, affected some other crops including maize, peanut and banana. Considering the magnitude of the damage that just two days' heat wave could do to rice and other crops, it bodes hardly well for life in general and agriculture, in particular, in Bangladesh in the days to come. Climate experts are of the view that unpredictable weather events are going to become a common feature of life. As such, frequent spells of extreme heat along with longer summers, shorter winters, consecutive floods, downpours and droughts, often ...